Hachiko Stolen!

It’s April Fool’s Day. I’ve never been much of a celebrant of this “holiday,” but I do enjoy a good April Fool’s joke–I just don’t do ’em because I can never think of a good one.

Speaking of good ones, the best ever played on me actually happened on our trip to Tokyo in 2007. One of the things we made a point of seeing in Shibuya was the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station, the loyal akita who accompanied his owner to work every day and when his owner died, continued doing it for another ten years until his own death. You can read the story here.

The day after we visited the statue, Mick and I woke up to a front page article in the Japan Times saying that the beloved landmark had been stolen during the night. We couldn’t believe it. How could it possibly be that this happened only one day after we saw the statue. We were in shock (okay, maybe not shock, but we were certainly surprised).

Then all of a sudden, Mick said “Wait a second, what day is this?” It dawned on both of us that it was April Fool’s Day, and we had indeed been fooled. The joke was on us, and probably many others in Tokyo that morning, at least the ones reading the English language newspaper. You can read the complete story here.

It occurs to me this might be one of those “you had to be there moments.” Perhaps. But it really was pretty funny at the time. And since I can’t think of my own April Fool’s Joke to play on you, you’ll have to settle for this anecdote. Happy April Fool’s!

But wait, let’s not stop here. What’s the best April Fool’s Joke you’ve played or someone’s played on you?